AP, Reuters journalists beaten, detained in Belarus

New
York, September 18, 2012--Authorities in Belarus must immediately investigate
the attack and detention of at least seven journalists reporting on a protest in downtown Minsk today and bring the
perpetrators to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Agents in plainclothes repeatedly hit several journalists covering an opposition protest organized by activists calling for a boycott of Sunday's parliamentary vote, according to news reports. Sergei Grits, a photographer for The Associated Press, said his face was covered with blood after one of the assailants punched him and broke his glasses, according to AP.

All
of the journalists were shoved into a minivan with no license plates and driven
to a police station where their equipment and documents were confiscated with
no explanation, news reports said. Police held the journalists without charge
for two hours and then released them, the AP reported. The officials also
deleted the images and video recordings from the journalists' cameras before
returning the equipment, Reuters reported.

The
journalists who were detained and
obstructed from reporting include Reuters photojournalist Vasiliy Fedosenko;
cameraman Dmitry Rudakov and reporter Aleksei Akulov of the German broadcaster
ZDF; Tatyana Zenkovich, a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency;
Pavel Podobeda, reporter for the Minsk-based news agency BelaPan; and
independent journalist Aleksandr Borozenko, the Belarusian Association of
Journalists reported.

"This
violent obstruction of news-gathering reinforces the country's disreputable
record as one of the world's most
censored nations," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina
Ognianova said. "Authorities should end the crude censorship tactics of
beatings and detentions, and instead respect their own electoral process by
allowing unfettered coverage of the parliamentary vote."

Belarusian
authorities are known for silencing journalists and repressing supporters of the
opposition, particularly around sensitive political events such as elections, CPJ research shows. An intense cycle of repression against the independent
press has been ongoing since the
December 2010 presidential vote, which left Belarusian strongman Aleksandr
Lukashenko in power. International observers declared the 2010 vote flawed.